Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is the most important social network among teens, according to a survey conducted by Piper Jaffray Equity research analysts. The social networking giant was ranked most, among the top three sites, comfortably sitting above Twitter with 25% of votes.
Most notably, Mark Zuckerberg’s company received more than 53% of votes for teens’ number one social network. This rubberstamps Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) as the most popular social networking site among teens, and clearly sets it miles apart from the second ranked Twitter.
Illustratively, Facebook scored an average ranking of 1.72, out of 3, as compared to Twitter’s 1.78. The social networking site’s acquisition, Instagram, came third, with an average ranking of 2.12, which further indicates Facebook’s superiority in the social networking business.
This also justifies the company’s decision to pay a hefty fee for the photo management feature, which initially rattled investors, who seemed sceptical about the idea. Furthermore, the fact that Instagram is only available in mobile networks for iOS and Android, this is a great achievement, as only 40% of teens surveyed owned smartphones.
Predictably, the professional network Linkedin Corporation (NYSE:LNKD), was ranked lowest, with an average ranking of 2.53. This was rather obvious, given that there are very few teenagers on LinkedIn, as it is meant for professionals.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Google+, came out fifth, in terms of teen preference, with an average ranking of 2.26, behind Tumblr, which garnered an average of 2.23. The Pinning social network, Pinterest, averaged a 2.40 ranking, which won it the seventh position, albeit behind a pool of other sites, which averaged 2.36.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has, therefore, maintained its reputation as the most popular networking site among teens. However, there are question marks over whether the company would maintain the same position, if a different age group would be surveyed.
Notwithstanding, the above statistics also bring another analytical picture into play. First, Facebook can easily determine one market segment that it can use for its strategic plan. The social media giant can design products targeted at teens, as it is pretty clear that it dominates that segment. Facebook’s design is socially oriented, and teens are known to dominate in social networking, which justifies the position held by Zuckerberg’s company.
Second, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) could as well be staring at the very reason why it has found it so difficult to monetize its traffic. Conventionally, you do not expect teens to have rich pockets, which means, inasmuch as they spend too much time on the social networking site, it is unlikely they will end up purchasing anything from the site.
The only positive return from teen traffic that Facebook can expect is through Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s gaming business. This has been justified by the manner in which, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) relies on Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA). The most recent results by Facebook mirrored Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s performance for the same period; although, the company’s ad business did struggle.
At the time of this writing, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stock was trading at $19.82 per share, down $0.41, or 2.01% decline from yesterday’s close.
